International Marconi Day 2024
Guglielmo Marconi
Sir Ernest Fisk
International Marconi Day (IMD) falls on 27th of April this year. HADARC is the holder of the Australian Marconi Day station licence – VK2IMD.
HADARC members can be part of IMD in two ways:-
- either by going on air, contacting VK2IMD and other IMD stations and, if you meet the criteria, you can apply for an IMD Award (details of the awards are on the IMD website).
- or, HADARC members can be an IMD Award station and operate VK2IMD from the convenience of their home QTH (under the relevant band and power conditions of their own licence). As we have done in past years, this is done on a roster basis.
VK2IMD is the only IMD station in Australia. It gains this privilege because of the wireless communication experiments conducted personally between Ernest Fisk and Marconi in 1918. Fisk established the Australian end of the experiment at his home in Wahroonga, giving the historical significance to our local area.
It is important that we continue to be part of IMD and activate VK2IMD.
VK2IMD NEEDS YOU. We are calling for HADARC members to join the roster. The roster will divide the day into twelve 2 hour periods for each band / mode combination.
- Operation starts at 00.00 UTC and finishes 23.59 UTC Saturday 27th April. This is from 10.00 local time Saturday morning to 09.59 local time Sunday morning.
- Operation is on all HF bands and 160m, permitted modes are CW, SSB, AM, and available digital modes only.
- Rostered operators MUST operate VK2IMD in accordance with the conditions of their own licence (ie bands, modes and power).
- Rosters for SSB, CW and Digital Modes operation show who is activating the callsign and when. The rosters divide the day into 2 hour time slots and you are encouraged to volunteer for vacant roster slots.
- You will need to keep a log to verify contacts for QSL and Award purposes. A suggested blank log proforma can be downloaded here. Other forms of log sheet can be used provided the information on the proforma is included.
- There is a special VK2IMD QSL card. If contacts wish to QSL, their QSL
must be accompanied by a Self Addressed Envelope, stamped if from VK or with
three green stamps or two valid IRCs. The address for direct QSL requests is:
VK2IMD HADARC
PO Box 707, Cherrybrook NSW 2126, Australia Note: Direct QSLs which don’t have SAE and postage will be discarded – there is no QSL via buro.
How do you volunteer? Contact Bob VK2KAZ or, better still, send an email to imd@hadarc.org.au nominating the bands, modes and time slots you are available to operate on the day. The roster on the website will be updated as required showing who will be operating on what band and mode and, importantly, what roster slots are still available. You can volunteer for one slot or as many as you can -- all and every effort to successfully activate the VK2IMD callsign would be appreciated.
More information on International Marconi Day can be found at the IMD web site.